


tell the world (we finally got it right)。

by stellarisms



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 05:12:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4466684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarisms/pseuds/stellarisms
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It's all three of us or nothing, yeah?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	tell the world (we finally got it right)。

 

“As you wish” always sounded like a phrase better left for fairytales and period dramas, not real life.  

Or so Takeshi had thought.   

Don’t overthink things.  

Take one step at a time and the rest will follow in time.

These little tokens of advice from his father - he treasures them not because they came from family (what a strange word, now, wrought with brand new meaning) but because he believed them, wholeheartedly.

He’s heard countless clichés on the matter, long before he fell for(ward and down and into) the hopelessly pure sky.

But he understands the stories – better than he’d ever let anyone let on – looking at Tsuna.  

“Should we go sometime,” that light tenor flutters up, reaches out toward him like the hand grasped gentle at his sleeve and those big eyes regarding him with renewed shine, “Yamamoto?  For ice cream, I mean.  On our own.  The three of us.” 

Ah, that’s right.

He thinks – things makes sense, more sense anyway, once Gokudera settles down beside them.  

Always has. 

But Takeshi wonders why he can’t call Gokudera by first name so easily.  

Why is it so difficult to unravel this boy like gunsmoke trails after a long midsummer storm, when everything about how he behaves around Tsuna (compliant, coddling…covetous.  Takeshi envies, too, but just who is it that he longs to become–?) is obvious as can be to Takeshi and everyone else? 

(He tries to picture it, how– “Hayato” would look when he calls him that.  Imagines the slight furrow of his brow worse than when he’s concerned for his dear Tenth’s health, the flush to those scrunched-up cheeks like when Dr. Shamal teases him for his lack of experience, the sight of that full bottom lip clenched between his teeth while he **hisses** , feline and flustered, that he doesn’t get Takeshi,  _dammit, you really must have baseballs for brains, you big bumbling–_ )

“We should!” Takeshi couldn’t say no - not when what he gets in the form of open smiles and a spring in Tsuna’s step is all he needs.  “Are you paying or should we ask Gokudera?”

It’s a game. 

A well-intentioned and purposeful one, nothing like baseball or the circumstantial Mafia game that Reborn has them entrenched in as of late. 

A game to seek reaction, to test – what new faces will Gokudera make this time?  What will Tsuna’s reaction lean toward? - placating easy laughter or a frantic twist of arms and legs as he moves between to intervene.

Takeshi doesn’t mean to be malicious, of course.

It's not in his nature.   

But he’s curious, endlessly curious about these two individuals, and so his interest in people goes back to wanting empirical evidence for what he’s found.

For what they’ve found in these strange, trying times.

“L-Like hell I’m paying for you and the Tenth!”  Sure enough, there it was: Gokudera, huffing, turns to Tsuna to say, “No offense, Tenth.”

“None taken.”  Ah, Tsuna’s in an especially docile mode today, scooting just a bit closer to Gokudera’s side of the bus stop bench.  The way he laughs when he does, Takeshi knows, is a good indicator - and fair reason for the color rising to Gokudera’s face. “B-But what if––”

“Absolutely not,” Gokudera near shouts, like it’s a royal decree, and Takeshi bites his own tongue to keep from giggling out loud.  “You won’t be paying for us, Tenth, not on my watch…i-it should be against Family laws, probably!” 

“Probably,” is Tsuna’s wry retort, fingers tapping out a nervous beat toward where Takeshi starts to slide over. 

“Then what if i paid,” Takeshi chimes in, hovering over the line between Too Close for Tsuna's liking (though there’s a contented wriggle against his side that says _it's alright_ ) and Too Far to reach out and brush away that strand sticking to Gokudera’s cheekbone, “for me, you,  **and** Tsuna?” 

Even untouched, Gokudera sputters and recoils.

“T–That’s not…”  Takeshi sees, then.  ‘Hayato’ is for when silver-dyed hair and slight shoulders bristle at the shadow of compliments, for when positive attention and anything close to praise gets that catlike gaze to glisten.  “This isn’t a competition, y'hear, Yamamoto!”

“You’re right.”  Takeshi crows over Tsuna’s distressed mumbling. “No need to turn it into one.  All for one and one for all, right?"   

Hayato deflates, all surreptitious glances and almost-pouts.

Tsuna, for his part, smiles at them both in turn.     

"Right.”  Heritage, blood-rights, otherworldly happenstances – all of that falls flat in the face of a smile that wide, and even more so when Tsuna’s palms fold over Takeshi’s and Hayato’s.  “All three of us or nothing, yeah?” 

They’re no knights, no attendants in waiting, and Tsuna doesn’t deserve to be tied down by anyone. 

“Yeah.”  Still, takeshi doesn’t mind this arrangement of theirs at all - and neither does Hayato, holding to Tsuna’s outstretched hand while he’s fighting a grin and staring at Takeshi. “You know it, Boss.”

(Years from now, when he speaks those words with the same reverence reflected in Hayato’s eyes, Takeshi will be glad that he said _yes_.)

 


End file.
